Warning: This review may contain minor spoilers!!!!!

4.5* I finished this earlier today and have been thinking about it before I leave a rating and review. In many ways I loved this book. Halfway through the book I was sure I had a rare 5-star review in my hands. The characters were so well-developed and believable. Clare was successful in getting the reader to identify with the hero and heroine, making them people of character, but with believable, genuine flaws. The characters never "broke" character, either, which I always appreciate. I appreciated once again that there were no "big misunderstanding" scenes or other silly plot devices to provide tension. The relationship had tension enough from the characters themselves. Gabe is wonderful, and Kat was a woman I can admire and respect.

So why 4-stars instead of five? First, as so often happens in romance books, the ending, or at least the epilogue, was a little too "hearts and flowers" for me. I would rather have seen some adjustments and struggles due to what happened.

But mostly I give it four stars because this is suppose to be romantic suspense, and in this book, the suspense plot play a very definite second fiddle to the romance plot. In Clare's previous three titles in this series, the suspense plot was at least as strong as the romance plot. In The Naked Edge, the suspense plot almost completely disappears in the middle third of the book. I don't mean things don't happen, but very little depth or detail is given into what is going on behind the scenes..the investigation. Overall, the suspense/mystery is actually very straightforward and uncomplicated and felt more like the plot of a sixty-minute TV police procedural. I think a lot more could have been done with that, and felt the "reveal" was a little out-of-the-blue (it needed more red herrings and suspects). So half-a-star off for underdeveloped suspense plot. But don't get me wrong. I imagine this will remain on my top 10 list for 2010.